Ato mo tae shiori mo yuki ni uzumorete kaeru yamaji ni madoinuru kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

跡も絶え栞も雪に埋もれて
かへる山路に惑ひぬるかな

Roma-ji: Ato mo tae shiori mo yuki ni uzumorete kaeru yamaji ni madoinuru kana
English Translation: The tracks are gone,
the broken twigs that marked the way
are buried in the snow,
and on the mountain road back
I have lost my way at last
Meaning: The tracks have vanished and the broken branches I left to mark the way are buried in snow; on the mountain road home I have lost my way.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 458

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on snow"
Composed as a poem on snow. The tracks have vanished, the poet says, and the branches he broke on the way in to mark the path are buried in snow, so that on the mountain road home he has lost his way. It sings of the forlornness of having every clue to the way back taken by the snow.
The author, "Ukon'e no Taishō Sanefusa," was the son of Palace Minister Fujiwara no Kiminori. He later rose to Minister of the Left and was called the Sanjō Minister of the Left.
Poems on snow continue from 445 to 467. The four poems from 457 to 460 are poems on snow placed under the same headnote. The next poem, 459, plays on the name of Kaeruyama, a poetic place in Echizen Province, so that the arrangement links it to this poem's "kaeru yamaji."

First line, "ato mo tae": "even the tracks have vanished." Like "ato taete" in 465 and "ato taenureba" in 467 of this book, it sings of snow erasing human tracks.
Second line, "shiori mo yuki ni": "shiori" is breaking branches along a mountain path to mark the way back, or the branches so broken.
Third line, "uzumorete": "buried in the snow."
Fourth line, "kaeru yamaji ni": "kaeru" is a pivot word meaning to return and also evoking Kaeruyama, a poetic place in Echizen Province. It links to "Kaeruyama" in the next poem, 459.
Fifth line, "madoinuru kana": "madou" is to lose one's way, "nuru" is the attributive of the perfective "nu," and "kana" is exclamatory.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanefusa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Yamazato no kakine wa yuki ni uzumorete nobe to hitotsu ni narinikeru kana
Next Poem: Koekanete ima zo Koshiji o Kaeruyama yuki furu toki no na ni koso arikere